I still have not had the radiator replaced. (No time. Need the car for doctor and medical visits.) It still leaks and about every three days or so I add a little distilled water. I have estimates to replace this running from $350 to $450.

I suppose that stop leak used on these cars will destroy some interal workings of the engine, like the aluminum heads or the radiator itself. So I am hesitant to use this stuff.

There was a one year warranty on the radiators. It has been 2 - 3 years since the last replacement (I will have to look at the records for exact time). Since that last replacement the economy destroyed Fullerton Dodge in Fullerton California. It is completely gone now. But, prior to them going out of business they did begin to see my plight. Even though the radiator before the last one was two months out of warranty, they did replace it for free.

It looks like a fairly big job to replace this thing. Otherwise I would do it myself. But, with a bad back [recent spinal fusion], this does not sound like fun. I replaced the radiator in my 1972 Chevy Nova in what seemed like less that 1/2 hour. Took me about 20 minutes to run to the shop and buy a new one. But, that's when they built reliable cars and not mobile computers with high failure rates.

 

I'm curious as to why you are going through radiators. What are you putting in them? Are you using a 50/50 mix?

 

Hmmm... It's not that big of a job really, I mean it's just replacing a radiator. It took me a little over an hour to replace mine and my old radiator was BLOWN.

Compared to an old 72 Nova, well of course it's going to be a little harder because that radiator was right there in the front, no cover or nothing! As long as you're replacing the radiator and not the auxiliary transmission cooler or the A/C cooler, it isn't that terribly bad.

As for the additives to the coolant, I'd stay away from them as well because a stop leak may also be a stop flow in some circumstances. Just sounds like lousy publicity to me!

As for these vehicles being mobile computers with high failure rates, I've never blown thru a vehicle computer on any of my dodges. I've also never encountered a problem that left me completely stranded on the side of the road, even if it does mean using a paint brush and a pencil to block flow of a broken vacuum hose on my 86 Ram 150!

 

Paint brush and pencil...I want to hear that story.....LOL

Best story I have is changing alternator brushes middle of the night.....after replacing them....trying to reinstall the alternator....remember this was a 86 Escort.....long before the days of self tensioners....single belts.... etc...... holding maglight in my teeth...alternator in one hand......lug wrench in the other.... (trying to set the tension load on the belt.....trying not to unseat the prop support rod.... side of an interstate with traffic whizzing by.......those were the days..

 

Yep all I had was my laptop bag and I was stuck on the side of the road and it was a major leak in a couple vacuum lines and I wasn't but 30 miles from home with traffic going by. I found the problem and put a paintbrush in one of the vacuum lines and a pencil in another vacuum line and used some duct tape to seal up the edges of the lines.

By far the most redneck job I've done on my engine, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get home! LOL

 

Have a shop check for electrolysis in your cooling system, it will cause leaks sometimes in as little as 30 days.

Here's a link to some info on it:

http://www.myradshop.com/information/electrolysis.htm

 

Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do in those positions!


One time I was in total BFE taking a short cut with 3 friends bunny/beating in a POS Subaru (I had to drive it back) and after a nice hop over a sage brush hill we got stuck with a few holes in the radiator and a popped heater hose........Anyway, took some dry branches from a downed tree about the same size as the hole (just over) and pushed em into the holes to seal em. As the wood expands the seal becomes better. Next the heater hose, well that was a simple cut and re-route back to the engine. No tools but I had some change that made a good screw driver. Ok fixed right? No

Start lookin for water to fill her up, beer, nothing!......&()(*^$(@%$*&*($......I knew where we were and the was nothing! Started looking in the car as it wasn't my car. Nothing!

Well, we got only one choice! Looked at my bud's and asked who had ta ****! Well all in all we got enough back in it ta keep it cool enough just to get the hell out of there, and as long as we kept moving the motor stayed cool, not to mention we kept the heater on high the whole time (yes it was summer)!

Well got back and gave it to it's owner (happened to be my brother) poor SOB........Hated him then and still do! Never told him what we did, just told him the radiator was shot and the heater line was bad.

He filled it with water and sold it the way it was, when he took the cap off he asked WTF, I told him we had to do what we had to do to get her home.

 

lol hydra wins, best story ever

 

Hahahahaha OMG hydra that's great.

 

I am with Sharp......Hydra wins.... I know I cant beat Hydra on this one but...here goes...worked at airport FBO (Fixed Base Operations.....the place where you get fuel...pay line fees....tiedowns overnights etc).... we had corporate clients and fuel trucks......well in between paydays.....we have all been there at some point in our life.....right???..I put small amounts of AVGAS (100LOW LEAD) in my fuel tank... did no engine damage but blew out cat converter over time....but I didnt run out of gas.